Build & run xUnit tests with Cake

Last year I already covered the basic usage of Cake, which stands for “C# Make”. This time we want to build and run xUnit tests with Cake.

Scenario

Let’s say we have this project structure. Be aware that all our tests have the suffix “Tests” in the project name.

The files are organized like this, so we have all “Tests” in a “tests” folder and the actual code under “src”:

src/Sloader.Config
src/Sloader.Engine
src/Sloader.Hosts.Console
src/Sloader.Result
tests/Sloader.Config.Tests
tests/Sloader.Engine.Tests
tests/Sloader.Result.Tests
.gitignore
build.cake
build.ps1
LICENSE
Sloader.sln

Goal

Now we want to build all tests projects and run them with the xUnit console runner. Be aware that there are multiple ways of doing it, but I found this quite good.

build.cake

#tool "nuget:?package=xunit.runner.console"
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ARGUMENTS
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

var target = Argument("target", "Default");
var configuration = Argument("configuration", "Release");

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// PREPARATION
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// Define directories.
var artifactsDir  = Directory("./artifacts/");
var rootAbsoluteDir = MakeAbsolute(Directory("./")).FullPath;

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// TASKS
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Task("Clean")
    .Does(() =>
{
    CleanDirectory(artifactsDir);
});

Task("Restore-NuGet-Packages")
    .IsDependentOn("Clean")
    .Does(() =>
{
    NuGetRestore("./Sloader.sln");
});

Task("Build")
    .IsDependentOn("Restore-NuGet-Packages")
    .Does(() =>
{

     
});

Task("BuildTests")
    .IsDependentOn("Restore-NuGet-Packages")
    .Does(() =>
{
	var parsedSolution = ParseSolution("./Sloader.sln");

	foreach(var project in parsedSolution.Projects)
	{
	
	if(project.Name.EndsWith(".Tests"))
		{
        Information("Start Building Test: " + project.Name);

        MSBuild(project.Path, new MSBuildSettings()
                .SetConfiguration("Debug")
                .SetMSBuildPlatform(MSBuildPlatform.Automatic)
                .SetVerbosity(Verbosity.Minimal)
                .WithProperty("SolutionDir", @".\")
                .WithProperty("OutDir", rootAbsoluteDir + @"\artifacts\_tests\" + project.Name + @"\"));
		}
	
	}    

});

Task("RunTests")
    .IsDependentOn("BuildTests")
    .Does(() =>
{
    Information("Start Running Tests");
    XUnit2("./artifacts/_tests/**/*.Tests.dll");
});

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// TASK TARGETS
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Task("Default")
    .IsDependentOn("RunTests");

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// EXECUTION
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

RunTarget(target);

Explanation: BuildTests?

The default target “Default” will trigger “RunTests”, which depend on “BuildTests”.

Inside the “BuildTests”-target we use a handy helper from Cake and we parse the .sln file and search all “Test”-projects. With that information we can build each test individually and don’t have to worry over “overlapping” files. The output of this build will be saved at “artifacts/_tests”.

Running xUnit

To run xUnit we have to include the runner at the top of the cake file:

#tool "nuget:?package=xunit.runner.console"

Now we can just invoke XUnit2 and scan for all Tests.dlls and we are done:

XUnit2("./artifacts/_tests/**/*.Tests.dll");

Result

The console output should make the flow pretty clear:

PS C:\Users\Robert\Documents\GitHub\Sloader> .\build.ps1
Preparing to run build script...
Running build script...
Analyzing build script...
Processing build script...
Installing tools...
Compiling build script...

========================================
Clean
========================================
Executing task: Clean
Creating directory C:/Users/Robert/Documents/GitHub/Sloader/artifacts
Finished executing task: Clean

========================================
Restore-NuGet-Packages
========================================
Executing task: Restore-NuGet-Packages
MSBuild auto-detection: using msbuild version '14.0' from 'C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin'.
All packages listed in packages.config are already installed.
Finished executing task: Restore-NuGet-Packages

========================================
BuildTests
========================================
Executing task: BuildTests
Start Building Test: Sloader.Config.Tests
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 14.0.25420.1
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Sloader.Config -> C:\Users\Robert\Documents\GitHub\Sloader\artifacts\_tests\Sloader.Config.Tests\Sloader.Config.dll
  Sloader.Config.Tests -> C:\Users\Robert\Documents\GitHub\Sloader\artifacts\_tests\Sloader.Config.Tests\Sloader.Config
  .Tests.dll
Start Building Test: Sloader.Result.Tests
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 14.0.25420.1
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Sloader.Result -> C:\Users\Robert\Documents\GitHub\Sloader\artifacts\_tests\Sloader.Result.Tests\Sloader.Result.dll
  Sloader.Result.Tests -> C:\Users\Robert\Documents\GitHub\Sloader\artifacts\_tests\Sloader.Result.Tests\Sloader.Result
  .Tests.dll
Start Building Test: Sloader.Engine.Tests
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 14.0.25420.1
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Sloader.Config -> C:\Users\Robert\Documents\GitHub\Sloader\artifacts\_tests\Sloader.Engine.Tests\Sloader.Config.dll
  Sloader.Result -> C:\Users\Robert\Documents\GitHub\Sloader\artifacts\_tests\Sloader.Engine.Tests\Sloader.Result.dll
  Sloader.Engine -> C:\Users\Robert\Documents\GitHub\Sloader\artifacts\_tests\Sloader.Engine.Tests\Sloader.Engine.dll
  Sloader.Engine.Tests -> C:\Users\Robert\Documents\GitHub\Sloader\artifacts\_tests\Sloader.Engine.Tests\Sloader.Engine
  .Tests.dll
Finished executing task: BuildTests

========================================
RunTests
========================================
Executing task: RunTests
Start Running Tests
xUnit.net Console Runner (64-bit .NET 4.0.30319.42000)
  Discovering: Sloader.Config.Tests
  Discovered:  Sloader.Config.Tests
  Starting:    Sloader.Config.Tests
  Finished:    Sloader.Config.Tests
  Discovering: Sloader.Engine.Tests
  Discovered:  Sloader.Engine.Tests
  Starting:    Sloader.Engine.Tests
  Finished:    Sloader.Engine.Tests
  Discovering: Sloader.Result.Tests
  Discovered:  Sloader.Result.Tests
  Starting:    Sloader.Result.Tests
  Finished:    Sloader.Result.Tests
=== TEST EXECUTION SUMMARY ===
   Sloader.Config.Tests  Total: 22, Errors: 0, Failed: 0, Skipped: 0, Time: 0.342s
   Sloader.Engine.Tests  Total:  9, Errors: 0, Failed: 0, Skipped: 0, Time: 0.752s
   Sloader.Result.Tests  Total:  4, Errors: 0, Failed: 0, Skipped: 0, Time: 0.475s
                                --          -          -           -        ------
                   GRAND TOTAL: 35          0          0           0        1.569s (3.115s)
Finished executing task: RunTests

========================================
Default
========================================
Executing task: Default
Finished executing task: Default

Task                          Duration
--------------------------------------------------
Clean                         00:00:00.0155255
Restore-NuGet-Packages        00:00:00.5065704
BuildTests                    00:00:02.1590662
RunTests                      00:00:03.2443534
Default                       00:00:00.0061325
--------------------------------------------------
Total:                        00:00:05.9316480